FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT GRAND PRIZE - PAGE 3

The 6th edition of the Okinawa Intl. Movie Festival announced the winners of its double-barreled Laugh and Peace competition section today at the Okinawa Convention Center in Ginowan, Okinawa, Japan. The Golden Shisa Award, the fest's most important prize covering all the pics in the competition, went to " One Third ," Hiroshi Shinagawa's twisty, wordy caper comedy inspired by the work of Quentin Tarantino and other Hollywood pics in the genre, referenced by the movie buff bank robber hero, played by Tatsuya Fujiwara.

GamerLive.tv With "Darksiders II" set to launch Aug. 14 for PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, THQ launched the "Darksiders II Soul Harvest" app on the App Store for iOS devices. The free app allows users to "harvest the souls" of others who check into nearby locations on Facebook. App users also can enter to win daily "Darksiders II" prizes with a chance to win a "Trip to the End of the World." Soul Harvest users will compete with their friends within North America to be the top harvester via an in-app leaderboard.

Just as soon as my $2 million comes from Reader's Digest, I`ll probably be retiring. It seems almost certain that I`ll be a winner, according to the postcards I`ve been getting from Betty B. Glass at the Readers Digest's Bureau of Control in Pleasantville, N.Y. In addition to the $2 million in checks to be drawn on the Bank of New York for deposit in my account, I`ll be getting an additional $15,000 a day as a bonus award if I`m the Grand Prize...

(Reuters) - Detroit Tigers pitcher Justin Verlander is eager for his Opening Day assignment on Thursday, while video gamers were already in action with Wednesday's launch of Major League Baseball 2K12's $1 Million Perfect Game Challenge. Verlander, who was 24-5 last season for the American League Central Division champion Tigers including a no-hitter, will take the mound in Detroit against the Boston Red Sox and Jon Lester to begin the six-month-long major league season. The hard-throwing righthander, who graces the cover of the video game after winning last season's American League Cy Young Award and Most Valuable Player honors, has already been a hit with his amusing TV ad for the video game with Sports Illustrated cover girl Kate Upton.

Grand prize Got a call from University of Chicago News Guy Jeff Makos. "Wednesday, Oct. 9, is the most important day of the Bulls' season," Makos said. Oh? "It's the last day that Nobel Prizes will be announced." And what, The Gimmick Formerly Known As Dennis Rodman is really a science experiment? "In every year that the University of Chicago has won a Nobel Prize in the fall, if in that same year, the Bulls make it to the playoffs with Michael Jordan, they win the championship."

Kaneto Shindo, a prolific, much-honored scripter and helmer of films including "The Naked Island," "Onibaba" and 2010's WWII drama "Postcard," died on Tuesday of age-related causes. He was 100. Born in Hiroshima, Shindo joined the now extinct Shinko Kinema studio in 1934 as an apprentice film developer. The following year he moved with the studio to Tokyo, where he learned scriptwriting and worked on the set of legendary helmer Kenji Mizoguchi. In 1943 Shindo was drafted into the Imperial Navy and became one of six in his 100-man unit to survive the war, an experience that became an inspiration for "Postcard."

The Blackhawks and St. Louis Blues are in a furious competition on and off the ice. The Hawks` management privately thinks the Blues should be castigated for the huge salaries given Brett Hull and free-agent pickup Scott Stevens. The thinking is, they could have gotten both for less with better negotiating. Blues President Jack Quinn is miffed and doesn`t want to hear his club is to blame for starting a salary-escalation war in the National Hockey League. Hull's worth is invaluable, Quinn explained.